


i told you time and time again (i'm not as think as you drunk i am)

by legallybrunette



Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: Angst, Drinking, F/M, Underage Drinking, brat billionaire, they haven't seen each other all season so this is me coping
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-11
Updated: 2017-12-11
Packaged: 2019-02-13 08:48:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12980454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/legallybrunette/pseuds/legallybrunette
Summary: Selina encounters a drunk Bruce for the first time.(set after the events of 4x11)





	i told you time and time again (i'm not as think as you drunk i am)

It was true about what they said about Gotham. It was the city that never sleeps. And much like the city itself, Selina was wide awake and buzzing with chaotic energy. After almost dying for the nineteenth time in the past week, and forming an unlikely alliance with Sofia Falcone and Penguin's ex-henchman, Selina could finally stop chasing herself in circles over the war between Gordon and Penguin. It appeared that the war was finally over, but nothing in Gotham was ever permanent.

 

This seemed to be true in the case of one Bruce Wayne. Try as she might, Selina always found herself sneaking through his suspiciously unlocked window at the dead of night. She had not spoken to Bruce since the whole knife debacle, and while she had gotten over it and actually forgotten about it, she didn't realize at the time that that would be the last she saw of Bruce Wayne.

 

The beige curtains flowed elegantly as Selina pushed open the window and gracefully hopped inside silently. She had expected Bruce to be inside the study like usual, but was surprised to find the room eerily quiet. 

 

"Bruce?" She called out tentatively, pacing around the study. She stopped abruptly when she heard a loud crash from what sounded like the kitchen, and without a thought, she grabbed her pocket knife from her back pocket and switched the blade open. She raced out of the study, her heart pounding with each step as she made her way downstairs.

 

She stopped in front of the door, pressing her ear against the rich oak door, listening for a sound of disruption. Upon hearing nothing, she kicked the door open.

 

The sight in front of her was something she had not expected to see. A sluggish Bruce Wayne stood with most of his weight shifted onto the countertop, bottles of beer littered around him. In front of him was a half filled bottle of vodka, that Bruce was clutching onto like a lifeline. She noted that there was a broken beer bottle on the floor, which was the cause of the noise she had heard earlier. She trailed her gaze upward and her eyes widened at the sight of a drunken Bruce. He had dark circles under his eyes, and his hair was an unruly mess. He reeked of alcohol and she could imagine the cartoon stench lines in her brain radiating off of him.

 

He hadn't seemed to notice she was there. "Bruce." She addressed him cautiously.

 

His head whipped toward her. "Selina!" He said all but quietly. He had a wild grin from ear to ear that could only be described of as shit eating and it was a look she had never seen on him. Although he had looked thrilled to see her, he looked miserable otherwise.

 

She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. "What the hell are you doing?" She began to assess the situation. Goodie two shoes Bruce Wayne was wasted in his kitchen at two o'clock in the morning without a butler in sight. Speaking of which, "Where's Alfred?"

 

Bruce chuckled a humorless laugh that sounded more like he was choking on something than anything else. He trudged his way around the counter until he was leaning with his back against the side he was previously adjacent from. She was close to reaching out to help him, but decided against it. 

 

"What does it look like I'm doing, Selina?" He teased. He swung his arms in a theatrical gesture. She had waited for him to elaborate, but figured he probably didn't even know what he was doing. He smirked, the sight sent shivers down Selina's spine, but not the good kind. 

 

"Do you want a drink?"

 

"No." She said. " I want you to tell me where Alfred his." 

 

"He's not here." His jaw clenched. "He's no longer my legal guardian."

 

Although Selina and Alfred had never seen eye to eye, the one thing they always seemed to agree on is Bruce. To think that Alfred had left Bruce, had no longer cared about Bruce, was unfathomable. There was something deeper going on. Selina crossed the kitchen and made Bruce sit down in one of the chairs by the counter, taking a seat next to him.

 

"What-"

 

"I got epanci-" He cleared his throat. "Emation-"

 

"Emancipation?" She tried.

 

"Emancipation papers." He clarified. "I got emancipation papers."

 

"Why would you?" She started.

 

"He hit me Selina." He interrupted, he turned his cheek and she noticed the purple and yellow bruise on the side of his face. "So I asked him to leave."

 

Something wasn't adding up. Although Alfred was not opposed to hitting a child if they deserved it, something she had been on the receiving end of, it wouldn't make any sense for him to hit Bruce, unless he deserved it.

 

"He hit you?" She asked mocklingly. "You've hit something too, Bruce. Rock bottom." 

 

"Selina-"

 

"I know you, Bruce. And I know Alfred. He would never lay a finger on you." Her voice strengthened in volume and she was starting to see clearly. "Unless you did something."

 

He was silent, which meant that she was almost on the nose of whatever had went down. 

 

When Selina had heard that Bruce had bought a club to party in at his own expense, she had just assumed that Bruce and Alfred were just on another one of their adventures, she would have never guessed that it was something else entirely. 

 

"You wanted him to hit you, didn't you?" She realized. "You wanted a reason to get rid of him. I just don't know why." 

 

"You want to know why?" He asked, mockingly. "Because I am sick of trying to be the Bruce Wayne everyone wants me to be. I'm tired of pretending that my parents company isn't corrupt, that this city isn't corrupt and that I can actually do a damn thing to fix it." He spoke menacingly at his own expense, and began pacing around the kitchen angrily. "I'm tired of pretending that I didn't want to kill Jerome Valeska when he kidnapped me last year, and that it's okay that I actually killed someone." He confessed, and suddenly all the pieces in Selina's head clicked in place.

 

"And I'm tired of trying to play the hero for Gotham, because quite frankly, I'm not."

 

"You're right. You're not a hero." She locked eyes with him, and could instantly see the disappointment in his eyes when she said it. "You're human." She said simply. "There are no heroes in Gotham, there are only humans, and in some cases, humans who can manipulate minds, who do whatever it takes to run this city their own way." Her eyes found her way to his hand, which was shaking on the counter. She reached over to grab it. "It was naive of you to think that you could try to help this city without someone dying in the process, but they truth is, you're the closest thing to a hero Gotham is ever going to see."

 

They stared into each other's eyes easily, always finding their way back to each other. Words that were left unsaid between them were communicated almost telepathically. She found her way gravitating towards him in, what was it, a way she couldn't explain but wouldn't change, ever. But, now was not the time for that. 

 

She squeezed his hand reassuringly and walked behind the counter to get him a glass of water to try to sober him up. It had seemed that the alcohol was leaving Bruce's system, but she had a feeling he would have a killer hangover in the morning. She slid the glass across the table to Bruce.

 

"Drink up." She ordered.

 

She watched as he complied and smirked slightly in satisfaction. She's still got it.

 

She watched as his eyes darted back and forth, like he were trying to solve an equation. 

 

"What are you going to do now?" She asked.

 

"What can I do, Selina?" It seemed as though he were really asking and not just saying that as a figure of speech. 

 

She sighed. "Well, first things first, you're gonna get rid of that damn club, it's done more bad for you than good." She noticed that she captivated his attention, and decided to keep going.

 

"And then you're ditch those loser friends you've been hanging out with and join your real one." She made her way in front of him as she talked, and relished I the way he let out a soft smile at her. 

 

"And finally you're gonna get Alfred back, because he's nothing without you and you're nothing without him. You guys are like," she scrunched up her nose, "those dynamic duos from those comic books." She gave him a rare smile, one only reserved for him.

 

"You think so?" He asked, and for the first time since she saw him, she saw the real Bruce. She saw hope.

 

"I know it." This time he reached out to grab her hand, and she felt those good shivers down her spine and shyly smiled to herself.

 

"Selina." He said her name in the way he always said it, breathlessly with a hint of awe, and this time she realized how much she had missed it. 

 

"Hmm?"

 

"Thank you."

 

"Anytime."

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first work for this fandom! I hope to do many more! Check out my other works. Please leave a comment with your thoughts or suggestions and please give kudos :)


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